


Uninhabited

by Subtle_Shenanigans



Series: Confused Chicken and Ashen Feathers [10]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Best Friends, Creatures, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Phoenix - Freeform, Tumblr Prompt, Unsettling, avian shapeshifters, do not repost to another site, horror slightly, no beta we die like men, non-canon??, platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-09
Updated: 2020-01-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:01:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22182229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Subtle_Shenanigans/pseuds/Subtle_Shenanigans
Summary: The town hadn’t looked like much when they approached; quiet, casual.But the streets kept winding deeper, and although empty, it didn’t feel uninhabited. . .
Relationships: Zero & Jake
Series: Confused Chicken and Ashen Feathers [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1114257
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	Uninhabited

**Author's Note:**

> So!!! I wrote this really late at night based off of a Tumblr prompt from writing-prompt-s. The prompt had to do with a city that gets bigger and bigger as you enter, and although seemingly empty, isn’t.
> 
> Zero and Jake are aged up slightly, in their early twenties in this, just to show case that they’re more experienced at handling things. They’re still dorky kids though.
> 
> ‘Zeer’ is pronounced like ‘Veer’.

“Well, this isn’t good.”

They approach the. . .town center? Town square? Whatever it is, it’s not the actually center, but rather a tidy little spot with a bench and an empty fountain. A quick glance confirms that it’s bone-dry and weathered concrete.

“How long has it been?” Zero turns to Jake, who’s looking up at slightly-grayed skies worriedly. They’d already tried to fly up, once, but the wind currents became tangled, wild, mere feet from the top of the buildings.  
  
None of that wind swept into the town below.

“I dunno, Jake,” Zero sighs. She runs her fingers through her hair, grimaces as she catches on a tangled knot - she really should cut her hair or get a better hairbrush or something. “I lost track ages ago.”  
  
He snorts. “And it’s no use asking me.” They’re both well aware of his odd relationship with the concept of time.

They take a moment to look around; off-gray-pale-orange stonework is set into the buildings which roll away into an expanse like they’ve never seen; each street looks vaguely the same, and goes on for what seems miles. Each row is offset, so that you can see the next building between the cracks of two adjacent. And they’re strange; with steps leading up partially, like apartments or, what were they called? Town houses? Dark brown doors, dark green curtains drawn in front of the windows. Brass knocker.   
  
And all the colors muted from an odd, stuffy sky.

Zero and Jake scooted towards one another.

No animals, either, nor birds, which threw off the avian shapeshifters even more. Jake trilled something low in his throat and Zero couldn’t help but agree.

Ugh, she hated this.

“Let’s go back the way we came,” he murmured, low. Bright eyes flickering back and forth. “I don’t trust this.”

“I agree,” she kept her tone the same, as they backed away.

But they were unable to backtrack, as the streets twisted and turned in one themselves. Occasionally, it would look familiar, and then fall away. Twice they were back at the fountain. One of those times they came the wrong way.

She sat down with a heavy sigh, brushing yellowed plants off from beside her. They crumpled, dead and dried out.

“Zeer,” Jake hissed.

Zero got up and was beside him in moments, wings outstretched. There was tension coiling around them.

Maybe the city wasn’t empty.

Jake tilted his head this way and that, eyes flicking around fast; his vision was much better than hers.

“There’s something here; it, they? however many keep slipping out of my vision. Do you se-”

And there was a flash of something dark and they both screamed, Zero smacking it furiously with her hand. Jake turned into a Crow and dove on it, holding it in place.  
  
It was. . .  
  
What was it?  
  
It was spiky, like a type black caterpillar she’s seen before. But bigger, like a rat, and thicker. It was an off-gray, same as the sky but darker. It’s beast eyes, all four glared into them, and-

Jake cawed some sort of curse, shifting into something bigger and less familiar to her (though in that same, neon yellow-green color), in order to shove its face away. 

It had long, thin teeth like needles that had extended when it opened its mouth, and it made a horrible, choking chortle-squeal.

It was hungry.

Zero felt sick all of a sudden.  
  
That’s when she felt eyes watching her, saw the flashes of darkness in the corner of her vision.

“Jake, we need to get out of here. On my signal. . .”

And then she was in the air in her Darkbird form; whatever Jake was used it’s disemboweling hind-claws to tear the thing apart, and then he was a peregrine and beside her, balancing to avoid the higher updraft.

The things came scuttling out screaming shrilly at one of their own being killed, trying and failing to jump at them. Something liquid glisten and dropped from their mouths.

Saliva? Poison? Anesthetic?

It didn’t matter; they were already flying away, forward, in hopes of outrunning them and finding a decent rooftop to land on.

And then? Then they would find a way out of this place.


End file.
